Feeling inadequate: Residents’ stress and learning at primary care clinics in the United States

Abstract

Background: Educators hope that residents’ experiences in primary care continuity clinics will influence more trainees to enter primary care careers. Unfortunately, evidence shows that outpatient primary care training in the United States is stressful and fails to promote primary care careers. We conducted qualitative interviews with residents to understand the source of stress and to explain this failure.Methods: In-person individual interviews were conducted with 37 primary care residents training at outpatient clinics in the US. Analysis used the constant comparative method and included open and focused coding, allowing themes to emerge inductively from the data.Results: 73% of residents interviewed reported negative emotions about clinic. Beyond stress, residents reported feeling inadequate as primary care physicians at clinic. Four factors contributed: mental distractions, unfamiliarity with primary care medicine, management of outpatients, and relationships with patients. Residents’ comparisons of hospital-based and outpatient experiences favored the former in relation to the four factors.Conclusions: Residents feel unprepared for primary care and inadequate as primary care physicians, and these feelings discourage them from practicing primary care. This phenomenon must be studied within the entire context of residency, as residents’ attitudes about their outpatient experiences were shaped in relation to their inpatient experiences.